Other Community Programs

Dave’s House is a partner in several collaborative efforts to assist the region’s homeless and recently-transitioned residents. We are contributing our expertise in assisting those affected by serious mental illness and co-occurring disabilities.

The Welcome Home Project

This initiative is focused upon housing 129 chronically homeless individuals by bringing landlords, prospective tenants and the community together. The project is led by the Central Florida Commission on Homelessness and Homeless Services Network of Central Florida. It is backed by community business leaders. It is piloting a new strategy for housing location, focused upon outreach to landlords and the raising of public awareness on the lack of available affording housing. It is also raising funds for move-in costs once suitable housing has been identified.

The individuals to be housed through this program have case management, wrap-around services, funding for housing, but no home. They are from Orange, Seminole and Osceola counties.

Local governments are also assisting the project. The City of Orlando has provided a $500 incentive to landlords who house the project’s clients who are of the population from the City of Orlando and Orange County. An additional $500 is available to that same landlord after the client stays continuously housed over the next six months.

Impact Families

This pilot program of the Central Florida Commission on Homelessness is testing and evaluating a new system of care for homeless families, beginning in Orange and Osceola counties. It is focusing on increasing housing stability and self-sustainability for participants, emphasizing employment and education that aligns with the Housing First model, through a Rapid Rehousing program.

Barrier Busting Program

As part of the Impact Families program, Homeless Services Network and the Corporation for Supportive Housing is working with Central Florida nonprofits, faith-based organizations and local government agencies to align service providers around the Housing First model as it relates to families.

It will serve as the platform for a regional network for getting and keeping people housed and on the path toward full and supported self-sustainability. Its goal is to maximize collective resources and create a localized approach to “bust the barriers” of homelessness. This program allows its partners to provide ongoing services to the individuals they assist, establishing them as a long-term resource in times of crisis. It will negate the duplication of efforts by groups working to end homelessness in the region.

It helps people get moved in and serves as a resource to sustain their housing. It assists individuals with typical expenses including application fees, security deposits, background screenings, utility assistance, rent gap coverage and household items.

It is developing a Central Florida Resources Distribution Center which will provide a centralized resource for agencies to provide life needs to people transitioning from homelessness. It will:

serve as a staging area for household item Move-in Kits, more easily serving multiple, simultaneous move-ins

make items easier to access by agency case managers

maintain accurate, real-time inventories of items on hand

provide an on-demand, needs-based distribution system with multiple drop-off and pick-up sites

Central Florida Continuum of Care

The Central Florida Continuum of Care (CoC) is a collaborative of homeless housing and services stakeholders from across Orange, Osceola and Seminole Counties who are committed to ending homelessness through sharing expertise, using data to inform practice, monitoring system performance, and using a collective voice to advocate for homeless neighbors. It is building a homeless service system designed to ensure any episode of homelessness is rare, brief and singular.

Along with State and local governments it funds nonprofit partners, quickly rehousing the homeless while minimizing trauma and dislocation. It creates streamlined access and use of mainstream programs so that the homeless can become self-sufficient. Stakeholder programs include street outreach, emergency shelters, transitional housing, permanent supportive housing, wrap around services providers, mainstream supports, employment and health care services, and housing services for homeless Veterans.

Its Coordinated Entry System (CES) streamlines the process of finding housing for the homeless. It is structured to comply with HUD requirements including multiple points of access and respect for participant’s privacy.

Its Homeless Management Information System database is used by Central Florida homeless service organizations to record and store client-level information about the numbers, characteristics and needs of homeless persons and those at risk of homelessness. It is guided by data standards created by HUD.

With the understanding that the only true solution to homelessness is permanent housing, the CoC works with landlords to identify available units for families, chronically homeless individuals, survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking, unaccompanied youth and veterans.

Emerging Minds

GuideWell Innovation’s Emerging Minds: Illuminating the Path to Mental Wellness has identified and prioritized key issues and opportunities for real system-level change for individuals with mental health conditions. Its White Paper is the result of community input from August 2017-March 2018 from the perspectives of patients, their families, employers and communities. By mid-2018, the initiative’s goal is to drive the development of innovative solutions through entrepreneurial initiatives and competitions.

One Life, Many Dreams

Dave’s House helps residents change their lives. Through permanent supportive housing, our residents are living in wellness and pursuing their aspirations. We believe in the power of stories. This one particularly resonates with us.

Providing individuals with permanent supportive housing changes lives. Each individual has a story, hopes and the potential for positive contributions to society. Dave’s House is committed to helping these individuals one by one, until they all have a home to call their own.

One day, walking along the beach, a man happened upon a young child. From a distance, he thought they were playing happily in the surf. But as he neared, he watched them methodically stoop, scoop something up and run with it into the sea.

They were saving starfish, washed upon the shore.

He said to them, ‘Why are you spending your day at the beach collecting starfish and throwing them back into the ocean? There are so many on the shore – you can’t save them all!’

The child smiled happily and exclaimed, ‘I know that, but I can save the lives of these starfish!'

He laughed, and agreed that they were right.

He kicked off his shoes, and joined the child, helping as many starfish as they could get back to sea.

Dave's House works with community partners and supporters to develop permanent supportive housing for individuals living with SMI. Your support helps us help them.